Learning to read

Honestly! I could go on about all this for ages ( and bore everyone to death)😬😱

We do different things with letter formation. When we copy a letter image we implant it in memory, when we reproduce exactly the same image without being able to see it we retrieve it from the same part of the bran plus imagination.
When we start to develop our own style or decorate with letter forms we then use a third part that links with emotion.

It’s really fascinating to see different parts of the brain firing up. I think I was so lucky to be involved in the research and to live in a time when we can actually see our brains working.

I just wish people who make decisions in education would pay some attention 🙄

Thanks Lathyrus3 really interesting (and obvious if you think about it).

Now I want to know how precision (and carefully formed letters) when writing is or isn't linked to creativity and imagination??.

... I meant to say we were lucky to have hundreds of hours reading time with our children - not with out children!

ferry23

No phonics around for me or my children. Just the old Janet & John and Peter and Jane for us. Weekly spelling tests and when my children were young we used to stick flash cards around their bedrooms to help them.

We can all read and spell.

And my memory may of course be tricking me, but I really don't remember there being so many people around when I was young who didn't know their "there" from their "their" and all the other bloopers you constantly see these days.

And even though I've read this post about 5 times it'll be just my luck that I've made a spelling mistake in it

Same here.

All those years ago when my oldest DC was at infant school and learning to read by a traditional method, my friend's older DD at another nearby primary school was learning by a most peculiar method of phonics. My friend disagreed with the method but, as she was primary school teacher herself, taught her DD by traditional methods.

I always remember seeing one of her DD's reading books, it was very strange. They then had to learn all over again.

Aveline

Janet and John did the trick for me. (Note not the Terry Wogan version!)

Although it might have worked even better!

Ahem, at the risk of sounding a knowall, I have actually taken part in some quite extensive research on how we learn to read and write, including spelling.

Notspaghetti is right when she says reading and spelling are not as related as some people think.

Reading is a decoding skill and phonics can be very helpful in this although I think the current emphasis on phonics in schools is detrimental to some styles of learning (but that’s a different debate). It employs the part of your brain that is concerned with perception- working out what an existing image is and is actually quite a visual skill.

Writing, including spelling, is an encoding skill. It uses a different part of your brain more closely linked to imagination. The image of what should be there has to be generated internally in the brain. That is why lots of people employ “does it look right” to check spelling. They compare the image they can see with the one that exists in their brain.

I could go on (interminably!) however re the OP.

There is a strong link between spelling and handwriting a word. Practically one of the most effective ways to improve spelling is repeated writing of a word/words with a pen that offers resistance like a felt tip or old fashioned fountain pen that also helps to imprint a physical movement on the brain.

Hope you haven’t all gone to sleep or just given up😳

Reading, speaking, writing- they are the tools of language and will be learned however they are. I grew up with books and could read before I went to school, the writing came later. I was surroundered by the spoken word, however, constant chatter and banter going on in the home. I think this is what is missing now- so I suggest talking to our grandchildren is the more important thing these days.

We were lucky to have hundreds of hours reading time with out children.
Happy days!
😍

I have no idea how I learnt to read. My mother said I taught myself. I could read fluently before I went to school, and was very impatient with those who couldn’t!

My children were much the same. I suppose they looked at the books I read to them, and picked it up that way.

When I attended infants there was a (ridiculous) reading scheme called ITA!

I was living with my Mum and Grandparents at the time and my dear Grampa taught me to read long before I started school (he was deputy Head and Latin Master at a local Grammar School)

The school wanted me to “unlearn” conventional reading and use the scheme, despite objections from my DM and DGF, I (apparently) ignored the teachers and just carried on with the reading I had learned.

Thank goodness this scheme didn’t last long!

Just been thinking - and really I suppose we did use a type of phonics naturally with our children. We didn't analyse phonic elements by name (as my grandchildren do in school) and didn't study "phonics" as a separate subject - but did break down words and notice how there are "families" of words. I think this is part of making rhymes and writing poetry.

I think what we did is maybe what they call "embedded" phonics these days.
I'd have to check that though!

No phonics around for me or my children. Just the old Janet & John and Peter and Jane for us. Weekly spelling tests and when my children were young we used to stick flash cards around their bedrooms to help them.

We can all read and spell.

And my memory may of course be tricking me, but I really don't remember there being so many people around when I was young who didn't know their "there" from their "their" and all the other bloopers you constantly see these days.

And even though I've read this post about 5 times it'll be just my luck that I've made a spelling mistake in it

My children were home educated and we chose not to use reading schemes.
We read real books untill they were "free" readers.
I don't honestly think reading and spelling are as related as some people think.

My spelling - especially of shorter everyday words has always been on the suspect side but I'm good with words that are longer and used less - such as say, rhododendron or onomatopoeia. I was an early and avid reader. I was good at spelling tests as I "crammed" the necessary words and promptly forgot them after the test.

My memory of the Janet and John scheme was how dull it was...
One of my boys liked what I thought were "dull" stories of the Milly Molly Mandy sort.

I'm less concerned about writing and spelling now than I was when my children were growing up.
There's much less call for handwriting now and anything formal/important will almost certainly be typed. There's spellchecker now too so it won't hold people back quite the same.

I should add, I can spot spelling errors (even my own) - maybe because I've read a lot?
I think if your granddaughter is a reader she will be fine.

I'm with Aveline there. Grandchildren learn phonics I think .

My daughter teaches infants, they use phonics but combine correct spelling once words are learned and real reading starts

Janet and John did the trick for me. (Note not the Terry Wogan version!)